EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. \u2014 As the right tackle for the New York Giants, Jermaine Eluemunor knows how to measure the loyalties and passions of a fan base. He works for a flagship NFL franchise in the league\u2019s biggest market, and he just got a close-up look at how the Knicks\u2019 historic NBA title moved an entire region.<\/p>\n
But if his home country, England, finally goes the distance in the World Cup for the first time in six decades, Eluemunor believes that nobody in or around sports will come up with a worthy precedent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf England wins the World Cup, there\u2019s no celebration in the history of the world that could compare to how that celebration would be in the U.K. I promise you that,\u201d Eluemunor told The Athletic on his ride to his home field, MetLife Stadium, where he watched The Three Lions defeat Panama, 2-0, to win their group on the way to the round of 32.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be the Knicks times a hundred, that\u2019s how committed fans are in England.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why Jude Bellingham Is Still Being Underrated<\/p>\n
Born and raised in London, Eluemunor was an Arsenal fan with Premier League ambitions before he realized his size and physicality were better suited for rugby than for the beautiful game. He discovered American football as a 12-year-old in 2007 while flipping channels and stumbling upon the Giants-Dolphins game at Wembley Stadium. It was love at first sight.<\/p>\n
Eluemunor was 14 when he moved with his father, John, to the United States, where he played football for Morris Knolls High School in New Jersey. Father and son initially struggled with the adjustment and their time away from family and returned to England. A couple of weeks later, Eluemunor pleaded with his parents to let him make a permanent move to the States.<\/p>\n
\u201cI basically begged my parents to let me come back,\u201d Eluemunor recalled. \u201cI had a goal and I had a dream, and if you truly believe in your dream, if you truly want something that\u2019s really in your heart, then you\u2019ve got to do everything humanly possible to achieve that. Me begging my parents to come back was me telling them, \u2018I\u2019m going to make it. I\u2019m going to become a professional football player.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He made it to the NFL via Lackawanna College and Texas A&M. The Baltimore Ravens\u2019 fifth-round pick in 2017 played for five teams over eight seasons, practice squads included, before finding a home with the Giants in 2024. Last March, John Harbaugh signed him to a three-year, $39 million deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI truly believe I was bred to be a New York Giant and born to be on this team and to try to make a difference, and I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way,\u201d Eluemunor said. \u201cI love American football more than anything, and I\u2019ve committed my life to it, but I still love soccer. I\u2019m a huge Arsenal fan and a humongous England fan.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s why he was part of the MetLife crowd of 80,663 Saturday, when Jude Bellingham<\/a> and the indomitable Harry Kane scored in the second half to win Group L and inject a bit more faith into a fatalistic fan base that wants to believe a major championship is coming home for the first time since 1966.<\/p>\n \u201cSimply incredible!\u201d Eluemunor texted after attending a match for the first time. \u201cNothing compares to a World Cup game!\u201d<\/p>\n The NFL veteran had just made it back from a trip to London to run his American football camp for young girls. If Eluemunor wasn\u2019t the biggest name at England-Panama (David Beckham was in the house), he might\u2019ve been the biggest spectator, at 6-foot-4, 339 pounds. He could have told some of the Giants fans in his midst a thing or three about what football \u2014 real\u00a0football \u2014 means to people back in England, the sport\u2019s home office.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is life,\u201d Eluemunor said. \u201cIt is everything. People commit their lives to their team. They are born and raised into these fan bases. You see teams like Bournemouth and Brentford, or QPR and Coventry in the Championship, little kids are supporting them because their parents are die-hard supporters and they had no option but to support those teams. It\u2019s either, \u2018You support this team or you\u2019re not my kid.\u2019 That\u2019s how crazy the fan bases are in the U.K.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, the national team inspires an entirely different level of devotion \u2026 and angst. Though Team USA could author the greatest of red, white and blue miracles around the 250th anniversary of the country\u2019s declared independence, the Americans aren\u2019t under intense pressure to actually pull it off.<\/p>\n In England, the motherland, the pressure doesn\u2019t come and go. It\u2019s everywhere the footballers turn, 24\/7.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have always had great freakin\u2019 players, some of the best in the world playing for us,\u201d Eluemunor said. \u201cWhen you have that and you are England, the home of football, the place where football was made and spread throughout the world \u2026 you will have lofty expectations.<\/p>\n \u201cThat comes with wearing the logo and having that England crest on your chest. You represent the people of England and those who live and breathe this game.\u201d<\/p>\n Jermaine Eluemunor at his home stadium to watch England take on Panama tonight \ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc65\udb40\udc6e\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc7f<\/p>\n Not bad for a first ever live football game, ay @JEluemunor<\/a> \ud83d\ude09 pic.twitter.com\/Vb3ScWRjgk<\/a><\/p>\n